LONDON: Declan Rice is hoping 2025 brings silverware for Arsenal but knows they need some help to deny a rampant Liverpool the Premier League title.

The Gunners moved second in the table after a largely trouble-free, if slightly pedestrian, 1-0 win at home to struggling Ipswich Town on a chilly night in north London on Friday but remain six points behind Liverpool, who also have a game in hand.

Arsenal finished second to Manchester City in each of the previous two seasons and Rice wants to end their status as nearly men in the new year.

“Hopefully the new year brings trophies — we’ve been pushing for that. To make the next step to be amongst the elite, you have to win stuff,” the England midfielder told Amazon Prime.

“We can keep winning games but it means nothing if you don’t win nothing. Liverpool are full throttle, they were under [Jurgen] Klopp and now under [Arne] Slot. They don’t let anyone breathe. We need someone to help us out so they can drop points as we can only focus on ourselves and hopefully something can happen.”

Arsenal’s chances of chasing down a Liverpool side that have lost just once in 17 Premier League games under Slot has not been helped by a serious hamstring injury suffered by Bukayo Saka.

Saka is set to be sidelined for “many weeks” in the words of Gunners’ boss Mikel Arteta with fears the England international could be out until March due to a hamstring injury suffered in last weekend’s 5-1 victory at Crystal Palace.

The lack of a clinical goalscorer may ultimately cost Mikel Arteta’s men a first league title in more than 20 years, but they took advantage of Chelsea’s shock 2-1 defeat against Fulham on Thursday to become Liverpool’s closest challenger.

A first-half goal from Kai Havertz, who pounced on a smart pull-back from Leandro Trossard, proved the winner although the hosts should have scored more as the Gunners’ performance failed to provide many pre-New Year fireworks.

“Frustration when you win? No. Things to improve? Yes,” said Arteta on the slender margin of victory. “Credit to them as they’re very well organised, but we restricted them to nothing. We should have scored more but it is the consistency, the team conceded nothing again.

“Considering all the circumstances we had this season, the amount of times we had to play with 10 men, all the injuries that we had, it’s good to be in the position that we are but it’s not where we want to be. We want to be first.”

Lacking the creativity of the injured Saka, it took 19 minutes before Arsenal mustered their first shot although four minutes after that Havertz netted his sixth of the season in all competitions by tapping in Trossard’s whipped cross.

Ipswich had a spell of pressure after 10 minutes of the second half but it proved fleeting and Arsenal should have comfortably put the game to bed after that.

Defender Gabriel Magalhaes missed a golden opportunity to extend his run of scoring from corners when he headed just wide when completely unmarked. Captain Martin Odegaard then blazed over after he danced from midfield into the visitors box.

The win lifted Arsenal to 36 points behind Liverpool, who have 42 and a game in hand, and meant the Gunners leapfrogged both London rivals Chelsea, who have 35 points, and one of the season’s surprise packages Nottingham Forest, fourth on 34.

Ipswich remain second-bottom with 12 points from 18 games, three off the safety zone, before they host Chelsea on Monday.

“The players worked really hard and we got the game to a good place in the second half after a good 20 minutes,” Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna told the BBC. “Early on we were pinned in and couldn’t get out but to be where we were after 89 minutes I was really pleased ... Some defending was good and we’ll need that on Monday against Chelsea.”

Brighton & Hove Albion missed the chance to move within one point of the top five as their poor run continued in a 0-0 draw at home to Brentford.

Fabian Hurzeler’s Seagulls are now winless in their past six games and are 10th in the table with 26 points after 18 games, two points ahead of 11th-placed Brentford who are still without an away victory this season.

Hurzeler rued the two points lost after seeing his side dominate the clash but lacking a finishing touch despite having 24 shots at a misty American Express Stadium.

“It’s a disappointing feeling. In the locker room it’s not a great atmosphere,” he said. “But in the end it’s our responsibility, we have to learn to win these games. In the end it’s a business where you need to get results, we need to learn how to win these games.”

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2024